Biometrics-based identification is a user-friendly way to securely authenticate human users. One major problem with biometric data when using it for identification purposes in distributed systems is that template biometric data must be available at a node in a computer system where the end-user is supposed to be identified. This constitute a major security design challenge in distributed computer system as this typically requires original, clear text biometric data to be stored at a central node and distributed in the system. Such solutions are very vulnerable to original biometric data compromise, and data compromised on one system may lead to a situation where the same biometric data is compromised on all other systems as well where the biometric data is used. Simply encrypting the biometric data will not solve this problem as the original biometric data must be available at the remote location during authentication.
Hence, there is a need to provide solutions that allow remote authentication based on biometric identification but at the same time provide protection of the original biometric data, and to be able to update biometric data protection keys.